


Listen to your Sister

by ValleyNerd



Category: Dragon Age
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-21
Updated: 2012-08-21
Packaged: 2017-11-12 15:15:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/492612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ValleyNerd/pseuds/ValleyNerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Random prompt from Tumblr for a DA2 fic. It strayed a bit from my original vision.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Listen to your Sister

“Please, listen to your sister.” These words rang like the Chant from his mother’s mouth. Because Bethany was so good-natured and perfect, and Calbryn was just always _right_. Always _better_. She was a better mage than Bethany and a stronger warrior than Carver.

At least until they lost Bethany. Carver was sure a lot of his older sister’s woe was at the hand of their mother and her blaming Cally for his twin’s death. Their mother got so up in her own head, so selfish, there was no convincing her that the blame was on the Darkspawn.

Any time Carver tried to talk to Mother, Cally begged him off. The pleading “listen to your sister” for peace became a Mabari’s bark for solitude. His sister, rather than being the peacemaker, became the keeper of the status quo, letting Mother continue with her sorrow and her bitterness.

Carver hated staying at home with her anymore. Instead he traipsed about Kirkwall and the Wounded Coast with Cally. Away from Mother, away from the city, they grew into their own strengths. One trip to the ocean remained burned in the young man’s mind forever.

Their first encounter with Tal Vashoth, they didn’t know what they were up against. They’d never fought Kossith. Even bringing Fenris, who was familiar with them, and Varric, quick as he was with Bianca, they still fared poorly. Carver took a heavy blow to the head, which must have knocked him out because the next thing he knew, he was on the ground with his sister in his face, working magic over his wound. He couldn’t hear her at first, but she was saying something around her spellcasting.

“—arver, no don’t you dare,” he heard as if he was underwater. “Come on, Carver. Carver! Stay with me, brother, I need you here!” Her voice became clearer by the second. There was an explosion, and she threw herself over him like a shield. After the heat washed over them, Fenris had his arm and was dragging him to his feet, shoving his blade in his hand.

“Listen to your sister!” the elf commanded, rejoining the fray. The last bit of Cally’s magic did its work, then Carver was charging alongside him, driving the Tal Vashoth away from his sister. Because she needed him.

Unlike Varric, who could hold full conversations during a fight, Carver only approached his sister once the battle was over. He swung his sword over his shoulder and put a hand on his hip, affecting a self-assured air. “So, you need me now, do you?” he asked.

Cally blinked at him like he was stupid, and for a second his confidence faltered.

“I thought that was always clear,” she said.

Big as her shadow was, as sarcastic as she could be, she was still his only family member (after his father) that made him feel like he was worth something. So when she asked him to follow her into the deep roads, he did. When she wanted him to become a Grey Warden to save his life, he drank. When they met at Chateau Haine, he talked. It burned him when he couldn’t help her during the Qunari uprising, but after the fallout of the mage and templar war, he helped her into hiding.

Because of Cally, he knew what he wanted. Because of Cally, he grew into the man that he wanted to be. Because of Cally, he felt like he could take on the world. And take on the world he would, at her side.

Because she needed him, and he listened to his sister.


End file.
